science writer + photographer

These Bright Streaks Are Evidence of Massive Tornadoes on Mars

Atlas Obscura

May 12, 2017

Peter Schultz likes to go on “tours of Mars” in his spare time. The Brown University geologist scans random images of the red planet from NASA satellites and looks for interesting surface features that may be worth more study. It was on one of these tours that Schultz noticed bright streaks radiating from an impact crater. They seem to extend farther than rest of the impact debris, and because they are so bright in the infrared image, he figured that they represent bare rock. Something had swept away the Martian soil after the collision. Schultz decided to look closer.